Asian American theater encompasses multiple Asian cultures but draws a lot of its influence from Chinese theater especially. This is a result of the influx of many Chinese immigrants to the west coast, particularly in the 1800s. Much of Asian American theater deals with exploring the cultural narrative of Asian people in diaspora, for example, some themes that are common are generational differences, Asian political struggles in the U.S especially during World War II or how modernization affects Asian traditions, especially in the United States. Seeing as diversity in the arts has been lacking, especially for Asian Americans, it's safe to say that Asian American theater didn't receive a warm welcome during the times of its conception. The anti-immigrant stances that mostly began in the 1800s discriminated against Asian American artistic expression for the consumption of the masses, most Asian American theater was consumed by the groups of peoples who made it: Asians. However, in the 1960s, things began to change; Asian shows began to gain some traction in the mainstream and began to write their own shows and form their own troops such as the East West Players who performed shows in LA which eventually spawned more ensembles that spread throughout the states such as the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre that formed in the 1970s. As this occurred, it also brought about the issue of whitewashing and caricature creation wherein themes explored in Asian theater and parts of Asian culture were exploited and roles for Asian people were given to white actors, also begot the creation of caricature-like characters who played on the stereotypes attributed to Asian peoples. However, there has been a lot of progress made as seen in the mass mainstream success of David Henry Hwang and many other playwrights of Asian descent who have shown their works in esteemed platforms such as Broadway and are finally gaining the recognition they deserve.